Soup Soon

Fall and winter have been my favorite seasons for most of my life. In recent years health concerns and discovering the joy of a Virginia spring (compared to a Michigan one) have made me look forward to the cold less, but there is still one thing that brings delight to my soul -- and stomach -- when the days get shorter. Soup!!!! I think I could live on soup every day if I had to, and I probably have enough different soup recipes to go nearly a month without repeating. I have about 13 variations on beans, and I'm sure I have plenty of other beanless ones.

But that's all I'll say about that now.

This week we ate the following for dinner:

Bean soup (red beans with your basic celery/carrots/onions/bay leaf) and homemade biscuits;

Tamale pie;

Ham, cheese and roast beef sandwiches, green beans;

Minestrone soup and homemade sourdough whole wheat walnut baguettes;

Chicken and rice with barbecue sauce, garden salad;

Vegetable stir-fry (no rice this time), lots of birthday cake and ice cream for Lucy.

And to note, for some reason I got more compliments on dinner this week from my kids than I think I ever have before in a given week. It made me feel great.

Oh, and also randomly, whole wheat bagels spread with garden vegetable cream cheese and topped with thin slices of English cucumber is a breakfast delight. I just discovered that in the past week or two as I was trying to think of food to take on a plane trip. mmmmm mmmm.